My aim is to offer insights into some of the more subtle principles underpinning prints. The commentary is based on thirty-eight years of teaching and the prints and other collectables that I am focusing on are those which I have acquired over the years.
In the galleries of prints (accessed by clicking the links immediately below) I am also adding fresh images offered for sale. If you get lost in the maze of links, simply click the "home" button to return to the blog discussions.

Condition: marvellous
impression showing crisp detail. The sheet has been trimmed to the platemark
and is age-toned in a soft and beautiful way. There are remnants of mounting
verso and a tiny spot of abrasion (?) on the lower right corner but otherwise
the sheet is in very good condition.

I am selling
this original early engraving by one of the major old masters for AU$446
(currently US$334.57/EUR316.04/GBP270.41 at the time of posting this listing)
including postage and handling to anywhere in the world.

If you are
interested in purchasing this graphically powerful and important engraving,
please contact me (oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com) and I will send you a PayPal
invoice to make the payment easy.

This print has been sold

There are three
key principles underpinning Van Leyden’s prints that this small but graphically
strong engraving exemplifies.

The first
principle is clarity of visual expression. What I mean by this type of clarity is
that Van Leyden’s has limited what he portrays to the minimum: St Andrew
holding the diagonal cross upon which he was martyred and his saintly status denoted
by his radiating double halos.

The second
principle is the illusion of spatial depth. Regarding this concern, Ellen S Jacobowitz
& Stemphaie L Stepanek (1983) in “The Prints of Lucas van Leyden & His
Contemporaries” (a marvellous exhibition catalogue published by the National
Gallery of Art, Washington) propose that Van Leyden sought “deep penetration of
the picture surface and the empirically logical organization of figures and
form within three-dimensional space” (p. 19). Regarding this print, for example,
note how Van Leyden “invites” the eye to move into the pictorial space with a gentle
tonal change from the foreground and to follow the flow of the saint’s cloak
around his body and over the intersecting beams of the cross guided by rhythms
of folds in the material.

The third and
final principle that I wish to lightly address is the way that Van Leyden
translates colour, tone and texture into a visual code of marks. Note, for
example, how Van Leyden’s lines change from the short “broken” lines
representing the rough wood of the cross to long aligned marks depicting the
smooth cover of the bible that the saint holds. Of even more interest to me is
the use of radiating lines arranged in a spiky pattern to show the glaring
light of the halo and how different this treatment of lines is to that employed
to render St Andrew’s cloak and the floor. Regarding Van Leyden’s use of visual
devices, Jacobowitz & Stepanek offer the following timeline:

“Before 1510,
dense black and high contrast characterize the engravings. After 1512, gray
tones and chiaroscuro effects dominate. From 1517 to 1520, the gray tone takes
on a silvery appearance. By 1529, the shadow are saturated with light and the
gray tones appear transparent” (p. 19)